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Get Ready to Trade Digital Assets via Bakkt on January 24, 2019!

Get Ready to Trade Digital Assets via Bakkt on January 24, 2019!

It’s happening, and it’s right on schedule. One of the largest and most ambitious platforms in the crypto space is about to go online: the Bakkt digital assets platform.

Announced via Medium post by the CEO of Bakkt herself, Kelly Loeffler, the official launch date is on January 24, 2019.

As we covered in a previous post, the creation of Bakkt was first announced in August earlier this year. An ambitious project, it involved the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and the NYSE among other global exchanges, all working together to bring digital asset trading into the “institutional” mainstream.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the regulatory environment of financial derivatives, getting a derivatives product–such as the Bakkt Bitcoin Daily Futures and the Bakkt Warehouse–to market is no easy task. Hence, Bakkt’s continuing work with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commissions, as CEO Kelly Loeffler notes:

“These products represent a critical shift in the evolution of crypto markets toward more accessible, useful, and regulated instruments. The level of collaboration at the exchange, customer, and regulatory levels are unprecedented in terms of engagement and effort in the institutional cryptocurrency markets. ”

But Loeffler points out toward the end of her post that there’s more to Bakkt’s offerings than just the derivatives products. They are also presenting clients with “insurance for bitcoin in cold storage” and are looking to secure “insurance for the warm wallet within the Bakkt Warehouse architecture” including “new features” to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

As a partner in the enterprise, ICE also announced in October that they plan on listing Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contracts on December 12, 2018, a product that will be physically settled and cleared by ICE Clear U.S., Inc.

Although it hasn’t been confirmed, rumors are floating around that U.S. regulators may approve Bakkt’s derivatives as early as this month.